Examining Motivation, Goal Orientation, Coaching, and Training Habits of Female Ultrarunners

Abstract

Ultrarunners are people who participate in running events that exceed the 26.2 mile marathon distance. The most common distances are 50 K, 50 miles, and 100 miles. Despite significant growth in the number of individuals who participate in ultrarunning events, very little research exists on this topic, especially relative to women. PURPOSE: The present study sought to describe characteristics of women ultrarunners, who make up 20% of the ultrarunning population (N = 344). Specifically, two important characteristics in women ultrarunners were examined: motivation and goal orientation. In addition, demographic characteristics (e.g., age, job demands, family structure, etc.), training habits (e.g., hours per week of training), and coach utilization were examined. METHODS: Participants were recruited by sending solicitation emails to the Ultra Listserve which has over 2,100 subscribers, and to four popular ultrarunning and trail running websites. Information about motivation for participation, goal orientation, training habits, and coach utilization was obtained through an online survey administered via Survey Monkey. RESULTS: When examining motivation for participation, general health orientation (M = 4.71 ± 1.06) and psychological coping (M = 4.71 ± 1.03) were the two categories most endorsed. In terms of goal orientation, women were higher in task-orientation (M = 1.38 ± .68) (e.g., finishing the race or accomplishing various goals) than ego- orientation (M = 3.38 ± 1.01) (e.g., placing in the top 3 overall or beating an opponent). Women trained an average of 12.49 hours a week and spent 64% of their time training alone. Additionally, women got their training information from their own experience, blogs, websites, and the Ultra List Serve. Over two thirds of the women (80%) did not use a coach because of cost and a perceived lack of necessity. CONCLUSION: Female ultrarunners in this study appear to be task-oriented, internally motivated, health and financially conscious individuals. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: With additional information about women ultrarunners, strength and conditioning coaches will be better prepared to work with female ultrarunners. It is also possible that increased information about this sport will motivate additional women to pursue this sport. Finally, those who currently participate can improve their performance by learning about current participants and practices in ultrarunning.